His work as a scientific collector began at Madeira. |Ibid., MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 310.| To botanize in that pleasant island was an enjoyment all the more welcome after an unusual share of suffering from seasickness, in the midst of professional toil. For it was honourably characteristic of Sloane that, under all circumstances and forms of temptation, medical duties had the first place with him. What he achieved for science, throughout his life, was achieved in the intervals of more immediate duty.
He reached Barbadoes in November. Thence he wrote to Courten: ‘This is indeed a new world in all things. You may be sure the task I have is already delightful to me.’ |Sloane to Courten; Ib., 1687, Nov. 28.| Then he continues: ‘I am heartily sorry that I, being new landed here, cannot now send [what I have collected for you] with this letter. What I had at Madeira cannot be come at. What is here I have not, as yet, gathered. But you may assure yourself that what these parts of the West Indies afford is all your own, the best way I can send them.’
The collections begun thus favourably were continued at the beginning of December in the islands of Nevis, St. Christopher, and Hispaniola. The fleet reached Port Royal on the 19th of that month. Jamaica was explored with ardent enthusiasm and with minutest care. Its animals and minerals, as well as its plants; its history, as well as its meteorology, were thoroughly studied. |Medical Cases appended to Voyage to Jamaica; vol. i (1708).| And the medical skill of the new-comer was put as heartily at the service of the toil-worn negro as at that of the wealthiest planter, or of the highest officer of the Crown.
But presently Sloane himself needed the care and skill he so willingly bestowed. ‘I had a great fever,’ he says, ‘though those about me called it a little seasoning.’ He had scarcely recovered before his knowledge of the natural history of Jamaica was suddenly and unpleasantly increased.
‘Ever since the beginning of February,’ I find him writing to the Lord Chief Justice Herbert (who seems to have been one of the earliest of the many patients who became also friends): ‘I dread earthquakes more than heat. For then we had a very great one. Finding the house to dance and the cabinets to reel, I looked out of window to see whether people removed the house (a wooden structure) or no. Casting my eyes towards an aviary, I saw the birds in as great concern as myself. Then, another terrible shake coming, I apprehended what it was, and betook me to my heels to get clear of the house; but before I got down stairs it was over. If it had come the day after, it had frighted us ten times more. |Sloane to Lord Chief Justice Herbert; MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. 277, 278.| For the day it happened there arrived a Spanish sloop from Porto Bello, giving an account of the destruction of great part of the kingdom of Peru.’
Long before this letter was written the exploring studies and expedition had been resumed with all the activity of renewed health, and they were carried on—at every available interval, as I have said, of pressing medical duty—throughout the year 1688. That eventful year, during which the thoughts and anxieties of the mass of his countrymen were so differently engrossed, was to Sloane the especial seedtime of his study of Nature. All that he was enabled to effect in that attractive path may now seem very small and dim, when viewed in the light of subsequent achievements. But it was great for that day, when, in England, the path was so newly opened that the possession of a taste for collecting insects was thought, by able men of the world, to be a strong presumption of lunacy. And it soon fired the ambition of a multitude of inquirers who rapidly carried the good work of investigation onward, in all directions.
Towards the close of the year, the Duke of Albemarle suddenly died. The contingency for which Sloane had had the foresight to make provision had arisen, but in a quite unexpected way; so that his forecast failed to secure him that time for continued research which he had coveted and contracted for. The Duchess of Albemarle had accompanied her husband in his voyage, and, after the first shock of his death had been borne, was naturally desirous to leave the colony. Sloane could not allow her to take the return voyage without his attendance. He hastened to gather up his collections and prepared to come home. The fleet set sail from Port Royal on the 16th of March, 1689.
The Return Voyage of 1689.
The voyage was full of anxiety. Such news from England as had yet reached the West Indies was very fragmentary. And the lack of authentic intelligence about the outbreak of the Revolution and its results, had been eked-out by all sorts of wild rumours. The voyagers looked daily with intense eagerness for outward-bound ships that might bring them news, and were especially anxious to know if war had broken out between England and France. When they caught sight of a sail so wistfully watched for, they commonly observed in the other vessel as great a desire to avoid a meeting, as there was amongst themselves to ensure one.
The Duchess of Albemarle had with her a large amount of wealth in plate and jewels, as well as a large retinue. Her anxieties were not lessened when the captain of the frigate said to her Grace, two or three weeks after the departure from Port Royal: ‘I cannot fight any ship having King James’ commission, from whom I received mine.’ On hearing this assurance—which seemed to open to her the prospect, or at least the possible contingency, of being carried into France—the Duchess resolved to change her ship. With Sloane and with her suite she left the Assistance, and re-embarked, first in the late Duke’s yacht, and then in one of the larger ships of the fleet.